


The Water

by Emzalina



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Gen, M/M, Sad, hajime dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-08
Updated: 2016-11-08
Packaged: 2018-08-29 22:09:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8507308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emzalina/pseuds/Emzalina
Summary: inspired by the song of the same name. Nagito and Hajime were together from birth and they wanted to be together for the rest of their lives.Too bad fate had a different idea.





	

 

The two mothers had known each other since they had been girls, so it was only natural that they wanted the same for their boys. The women had given been pregnant at the same time and given birth within a few months each to a new tiny baby boy. They named them Hajime Hinata and Nagito Komaeda respectively.

Nagito was the older of the two by a few months, but he was never taller or stronger than Hajime; the two were pretty much equal for the whole time they were together. They were like brothers from the moment they met. They would huddle together, cooing at one another, holding hands before they even knew how to grip toys properly. When they grew older, they would snuggle up on one pillow under the same blanket. They would share everything, even planning to live together when they left their mothers.

The two mothers used to joke that their sons would be married, or find girlfriends and marry them together; that their children would be the same as they were: best friends until the bitter end and never wanting to part. The two women laughed about moving in together so that their sons never would leave them, but both of the husbands refused profusely.

The women warned their men half-heartedly, laughing and joking around in their happy bubble.

Neither couple did expect that they would suffer terrible loss.

And one mothers suffering, would become a burden for both eventually...

\----

 

"Hajime! Hajime!" called a small white haired boy. The voice belonged to the pale little Nagito Komaeda, standing alone in the sea waving to his best friend. His tiny thin form looked odd there; his skin and hair both seeming to match the colour if the sea spray adorning the waves.

There was a reason for that. Nagito had a rare skin disease, causing his hair to turn white. The tips were still slightly coloured. It was a pretty pinking brown colour. Something that would probably have gone well with his grey green eyes.

Hajime squealed as he splashed his way into the sea next to his friend. He plonked himself down in the water, splashing out a little puddle of sea water around him.

"Ewwey!" He called, sticking out his tongue and spitting. Sea water went in Hajime's mouth, but all Nagito could do was laugh at his friend. Hajime looked silly!

"Oh well…. If you're gonna laugh...." _splash!_ And that was how Nagito found himself with a soggy mop of white tangled hair and sea water in his eyes and mouth. He screamed at the sting, closing his eyes tightly.

"Hajime! That hurts!" He squealed, splashing back at the other with the hand not rubbing water out of his eyes. Hajime yelled in return, rubbing his own eyes.

In the end, both boys ran to their mothers to wipe their eyes on their beach towels.

The two women were lying out sun bathing by the water. They were chatting calmly, laughing and having fun, expecting their children to look after each other just fine.

Hajime and Nagito began to go back into the water. They were tightly holding each other's hands now, after promising they would not splash each other anymore.

Hajime tiptoed, dragging them both closer to the water. 

Nagito hummed, holding back slightly.

"Are you okay?" Hajime asked softly. He squeezed Nagito's hand, back-pedalling to stand next to the hesitant one.

"Can we just... splash for a little? Here in the shallow bit... I don't want to go in..." Nagito was looking down at his feet, not at Hajime.

"Are you scared?" Hajime asked. "It's okay! I'll hold your hand the entire time!"

Nagito still looked a little hesitant.

"The... whole time...?" He asked, peeking up at Hajime.

"I promise!" The other boy said. He crossed a finger over his heart.

"Okay..." Nagito sighed. The two began going in further, until they were waist deep in the rocky watery rock pools.

"Not too far boys!" A mother called. 

"Yeah, no further than you can stand!" 

The two women were still lying down, not looking at the children as they spoke. One moaned at the feeling of Sun on her skin and the other just turned.

The boys shouted an 'okay mom!' And kept venturing in.

They were waist deep when they stopped, looking at all the little fish in the pools they had been caught in.

"Hajime! Hajime!" Nagito excitedly pointed out a small, red crab with its claws extended to snap at the boys. The two giggled, poking their fingers into the water carefully, trying to tease the crab but not get pinched at the same time.

"Hey Nagito, I want to have a competition!" Hajime smirked. He swam out a little farther, picking his feet up of the ground and using his arms to stay afloat.

"Hajime, you're too far out." Nagito replied, holding out a hand to the other boy. Hajime shook his head.

"This is necessary!" He nodded to himself. "We're going to have a competition to see who can hold their breath for longer!"

Hajime ducked under for a second, laughing as he can back up and shaking his head like a dog.

"Come on Nagito! I bet I win!" Hajime's laughing voice was all Nagito needed to swim out next to him.

"Okay, but just one time..." Nagito nodded. "If we stay under too long a sea monster might see us and snatch us!" Hajime laughed again.

"Sea monsters don't exist! But if they did..." Hajime looked down pouting. "I'd protect you from it." His voice was so small but Nagito still heard, smiling and giggling himself.

"Yeah! And I'll protect you too!"

"Okay!" Hajime perked up at the suggestion, smiling and blushing at his friend. He took Nagito's hand, "on three! We dive down! And then, we come back when we run out of air!" Nagito nodded 

"Okay! But Hajime will probably win..."

"Well you don't know that yet!" Hajime smirked. "Now... one... two... three!"

The two dove under. Nagito squeezed his eyes shut to stop the sea water getting in. He felt Hajime slowly letting his hand go and let him. Maybe this was his technique! Nagito didn't want to stop that... he held his breath for as long as he could, listening for the sound of someone else breaking the water. He knew Hajime wouldn't cheat, but he had to check if he had won yet!

After a few more seconds, Nagito gave up, he popped back out of the water, looking for Hajime's form.

Hajime was floating near the surface by the rock pools, face down.

Woah! He was still going!

Nagito went over, tapping his shoulder.

"Woah! Hajime! You can hold your breath for such a long time! I'm so jealous!" Nagito told the other. He smiled, knowing that was exactly what Hajime would want to hear. He knew that would pull Hajime back up. 

The only problem was.... it didn't.

"Hajime? Hajime come on! You win!" He shook Hajime's shoulder.

"Hajime?" He tried again. Nothing. Nagito turned to the parents.

"Mommy! He's not coming up!"

There was a rush of activity suddenly and Nagito could hardly keep up. The two women who had previously been relaxing were screaming and shaking Hajime, turning him over and listening for his heart.

"Mommy? Hajime?"

No response. The two dragged the other boy to the beach and began pressing on his chest. Nagito had seen that before...

"No, no! HAJIME!"

Nothing.

Hajime!

**_Hajime!_ **

 

\----

 

"Hajime." A voice whispered into the salty sea air

"It's been ten years... I guess we both know that." There was a laugh.

"How's the sea treating you? Well I hope." Nagito nodded to himself.

"As always... I have the white paper sailboat for you. But... Mom says I'll have to go away soon. Something about a new school for emotionally devastated people. But I'm not emotionally devastated! I'm just... scared."

Nagito kneeled down, placing the boat into the waves. 

"I hope this boat reaches you well. I wonder how far your abilities stretch. Will you be able to guard me if I'm far away?" Nagito sighed. "Do I even want to go far away? I think I'd much rather stay here with you..."

Nagito looked down at the water. He had taken his shoes off and rolled up his jeans already. He wanted to be ready for if today was the day.

Ever since the day Hajime died, Nagito had not set foot into the ocean.

He was scared that something in the undercurrent would grab him. That monster that stole away his best friend... that would take him too.

As much as Nagito really wanted to be with Hajime... he didn't think it was time to join him yet.

Nagito took a small step forward, looking intently at the waves that would lap against his toes. One came closer, causing him to retreat. Nagito let out a sigh. No, he still couldn't go in. He was too scared. What if he was pulled away? What if he died like Hajime and nobody knew?

Not yet.

He wasn't going to let that happen yet.

As much as he wished nobody would worry about him dying, nobody knowing what has happened to him was a despairingly painful thought. His parents would always hold onto hope that their boy was alive, and while hope like that was amazing, Nagito didn't want his parents to have false hope. That was just despair, hiding in the shadows mascaraing as hope. The worse kind of despair.

Nagito finally stepped away, frowning at the offending wave trying to lap at his toes. 

The most painful thing was, the wave reminded him of a hand. It looked like a hand reaching out to pull him gently in. The hand wasn't an evil spirit or a good one. It was just the will of the ocean.

Maybe it could even be Hajime himself...

Nagito sighed and shook his head.

"Bye Hajime... I'll come see you before they send me away."

The waves seemed to crash in response. Nagito thought about running forward and diving in. He was thinking about purposely smacking his head of something, letting himself die and join Hajime in the ocean.

He thought of the story of the little mermaid. The true one, where she became a sea spirit. He wondered if he and Hajime could be sea spirits together... they could be best friends forever... even something more.

At 17, Nagito often thought about what a grown up Hajime would look like, he asked his friends to draw it once but none of them could get it completely right... Nagito was sure his image was correct, Hajime would have been beautiful.

Pain throbbed in Nagito's chest. Anything that started with 'would have been' was a sore subject for him. 

After all, Hajime's family moved away after Hajime died. Hajime's older brother Izuru became withdrawn, sullen and emotionless. He was like an empty shell instead. The parents thought that the countryside would change that.

Nagito never heard from them whether it did.

He had added Izuru on Facebook, but the other only ever posted pictures with two girls. He would never answer messages either. So after a year of trying Nagito gave up with Izuru.

Nagito shook all thoughts of Hajime and Izuru. He was done thinking about sad times. He had to get ready to go to his new school.

\--

 

A year passed.

Hajime's influence didn't follow to the school, or whatever Nagito believed was Hajime’s luck didn’t anyway. Nagito withstood bad experience after bad experience. Things like his science projects would blow up or he would be the one to set the microwave on fire. His antics and bad luck began to turn the other students against him until finally he was completely exiled and expelled for his low grades and managing to burn down a records room.

At home, his parents started to ignore him. Nagito had gotten a criminal record for vandalism charges, for a fire he didn’t mean to start. He didn’t expect he would drop a candle! He didn’t expect it would roll! Either way, the parents blamed him. He had tarnished their name.

He was a stain, a piece of dirt in their house.

Of course, that had gotten worse recently. Nagito’s most recent trip to a doctors had brought a lot of things about his health to light. Things that had angered Nagito and made him take matters into his own hands.

That was why Nagito was standing near to the beach now.

"Hajime... I'm dying." He laughed. "I'm dying! How wonderful!"

Nagito laughed loudly, one wave crashed angrily, coming up further on the beach than the rest.

"Hey! You shouldn’t be angry at me for saying so Hajime! Ah but I guess it doesn't matter... that’s the reason I came here..." Nagito took a deep breath, closing his eyes and exhaling though his mouth.

"I want to die... on my own terms." Nagito began removing his shoes.

"I don't want the cancer... or the dementia to get me. I want to be with you forever."

There was no answer from the suddenly calm water. Everything was still. Nothing was happening. 

Nagito laughed again. He sat down, rolling up his jeans. The odd silence made him smile. He stood up, sighing and moving forward.

"Did I stun you to silence Hajime? It's okay! I'll be with you soon..." with that, Nagito took another step forward.

“I’m ready.” He breathed deeply again, trying to get over his initial fear of being pulled over when-

"Hey!! Excuse me!" A girl with long blonde hair ran up. She was wearing a scuba outfit and waving her hand at Nagito.

"Sir! Your clothing isn't really the type I would advise for swimming. Might I convince you to go change?" The girl was smiling politely, her hands clasped together behind her back.

Nagito smirked at her.

"Why? I'm only -"

"Oh! Are you only paddling? Allow me to join you! After all... being here alone is tiresome." The girl was still politely smiling. Nagito was starting to find the smile sickening. He couldn’t be rude, so decided to talk to the woman.

"Isn't that the same for you? You're here alone."

"I am not. I am with a friend, however he had to leave to save a jelly fish."

Nagito blinked, making sure he heard that right. What the hell was this woman talking about?

"The animal jumped onto me from the sea, and when I looked up, I saw you and told Gundam- my friend- I would see you while he was dealing with the jelly fish."

Nagito smirked at the water _'well played Hajime'_

He sighed, realising his plan was ruined for today.

"Okay, I’m going to go now anyway, miss...?"

"Ah! I'm Sonia. Sonia Nevermind. Pleasure to make your acquaintance!" The girl held out a hand to shake.

"Komaeda. Nagito Komaeda." The other imitated, as he shook the girls hand.

He was going to tell her he would be there tomorrow too, but he was thinking that she would be looking out for him now.

Nagito knew the blonde was not stupid. He knew she knew what he was doing... Nagito realised his impulse action of drowning himself was not going to work.

He sighed. Realising that the only way he would be able to live was that he would have to appease Hajime by living. A few more months would probably suffice.

Maybe this Sonia girl would also keep an eye on him each time he came to the beach and it would turn into years.

Of course, his time was limited. It wasn’t even months or years, it was mere days... hours. Every second was another grain of sand Nagito would never get back and he was oh so awake to the fact he was not getting those moments.

He was rapidly losing time.

But he didn't care that much.

Nagito became passive, bored with life and everything he encountered. He couldn't understand conversations anymore. He was saying things that upset his mother and father and his mother would slap him quite often. Nagito didn't see any problem with it. After all, he was trash. Someone who had let their best friend die must be trash... right?

Of course, Nagito was happy to find people that agreed and treated him as such.

He stopped going to the beach at their command. Junko said that leaving Hajime would cause him more despair than going to see his watery grave. Nagito didn't know which was worse, knowing Hajime couldn't be his guardian angel where he was or that Nagito couldn't go talk to him.

It really did send him into despair.

And depression. The clinical kind that resulted in a nice big drug cocktail with the prescription label 'Nagito Komaeda'. Some days, he would get his drugs; others, Junko would take them and sell them to children for quick highs. Nagito never got a cut. Not that he needed the money anyway...

He just went with Junko because it was easier.

She knew Izuru too. Turned out this girl was one of his two friends.

She told Nagito that Izuru was amazing and that she was so happy that he was her Senpai and that Nagito was filthy scum and should never talk to Kamukura-Senpai, let alone call him by his given name. She had cut him with a pair of scissors for using the name 'Izuru'. Nagito always considered doing it over and over so she would cut him more and he could bleed.

After all, too much bleeding lead to the slow death he wanted right?

 

\----

 

It wasn't a slow death he got.

Nagito could've laughed at how stupid his death was. He was someone with good luck. He had survived for three years with stage 3 cancer and dementia yet this was how he died?

Nagito had imagined his perfect death. He imagined the beauty and hope he could embody.

He saw himself, falling drowsily beneath mirror-like waves, complacent and at peace as he fell further and further down, anchored by some type of stone attached to his ankles.

 _'Take me away...._ ' he would've whispered and he would've waited for Hajime to come and collect him.

Of course, his death was so much different from this fantasy.

Nagito ended up lying face down, eyes open in a pool of his own blood. Shot in the head during a robbery gone wrong.

The last words his blue lips had uttered were 'I want this', his last thoughts were of Hajime and now, somewhere on that dreaded earth were two men, selling golden antiques to pawn shops and giving stolen jewellery to friends and family. Nagito would've laughed if he was alive.

But right now, he was standing in front of a bright silhouette with wings.

He didn't believe in heaven or hell... but he hoped his purgatory would be short or at least with Hajime.

"Nagito." A voice called. The boy looked to the side and saw Hajime's mother. She was young again, the same he imagined her when he had last seen her, back when he was seven.

"Hello." Nagito said. He wondered why his voice sounded a little off. He wondered why Hajime's mother looked so much taller than him.

Nagito couldn't help himself, walking forward he held out a hand for the woman to take. His hands were small, pale and soft looking. Like a child's.

The woman smiled down at him, taking the tiny hand and leading him on.

"We were worried about you." She explained. We sent Sonia to try and save you... but the robbery happened. I do wish we could've given you a few more years..."

"It's okay!" Nagito told her. He didn't really understand his voice right now either. Maybe the sound in this place was just distorted. He wasn't going to ask yet.

The woman was leading quite fast, and Nagito couldn't keep up well. He was still trying to digest the news about Sonia when he was picked up. He let out an undignified squeak, looked at the woman.

"Sorry Nagito, it’s easier to carry you when you're this small..."

"Small?" Nagito finally got the courage to ask. Hajime's mother laughed.

"Surely you must've noticed! You're a toddler right now!" Nagito let out another squeak at the information. He looked down at himself, not really believing at first that it was true.

"A toddler? Why?" He asked. The woman laughed.

"It's the way of the deity who owns this domain. She believes in granting wishes."

Nagito hummed. "Is she granting a wish of mine by making me a baby?"

"Yes." The mother smiled widely, beaming like Nagito was her own child.

"My wish was..."

"Nagito!"

Nagito whipped his head around seeing another child running towards them.

Nagito blinked. He looked to Hajime's mother, who was smiling down at the child.

She placed Nagito on the ground as he decidedly ran screaming towards the other child.

"Hajime!" He screamed loudly.

The two collided in a hug, happily giggling and tearing up. 

"Hajime.... Hajime.... Hajime!" Nagito repeated. The other boy giggled.

"I was waiting!"

"For me?" 

"For your wish."

Nagito smiled widely. He took Hajime's hand and they walked over to Hajime's mother.

"Come on then." The woman laughed. "I'll take care of you boys. It's time for supper and bed."

"And we get to share a bed?" Hajime sounded out of his mind happy.

"Yes." 

The two boys looked at each other excitedly. They ran after the woman, giggling and laughing. They would not let go of each other’s hands.

Nagito turned, getting a glimpse down into the world, at what his mother and father were going though. He wanted to go to them, tell them he was okay, but he was with Hajime now. He was happy.

He was sure that his parents would be happy for him. Or maybe just glad that he’s gone.

Nagito skittered off, chasing after his happily ever after in whatever place this was.

\--

_My wish? I know what that was..._

_I wish I could've grown old with Hajime. I wish I could've had Hajime by my side as we grew up._

_I wish I had my Hajime._

_Guess I'm going to get that now._

 

 


End file.
